Author: Alex Thompson

List of Statins + Uses, Types & Side Effects

The formulas in these tools often consider your cholesterol levels, age, race, sex, smoking habits and health conditions. In rare cases, statins may change how the body processes glucose (blood sugar). For this reason, statins can cause a small increase in your risk of developing type 2 diabetes. Although side effects believed to be caused by statins can be annoying, consider the benefits of taking a statin before you decide to stop taking your medicine. Remember that statins can lower your risk of a heart attack or stroke, and the risk of life-threatening side effects from statins is very low. The FDA warns on statin labels that some people have developed memory loss or confusion while taking statins.

Some side effects go away as the body adjusts to the medicine. They work by blocking a substance that your body needs to make cholesterol. The same study also grouped participants into categories of male and female, finding that the statin lowered LDL cholesterol equally well for both categories.

You may also want to ask your provider if you need to avoid grapefruit or pomegranate or their juices or if it’s ok to have a small amount. These foods can make it hard for your body to break some statins down, allowing too much of the drug to accumulate in your body and giving you more side effects. Statins get in the way when your liver is trying to make cholesterol. Like a good basketball player who doesn’t let an opponent get the ball, statins don’t let your liver have an enzyme it needs to create cholesterol. Your body makes 75% of your cholesterol, so helping it make less can make a big difference.

How can I manage side effects of statins?

If your risk is very high — for example, you’ve had a heart attack in the past — a statin may be helpful even if you don’t have high cholesterol. Not everyone who takes statins will experience side effects. But some people may be at higher risk of side effects than others, according to research. Grapefruit can interact with certain statins, increasing the concentration of statins in your blood. A strong predictor of if you’ll experience muscle aches when taking statins could be whether or not you read about the potential side effect. While you’re taking statins, you should contact your provider if your muscles or joints hurt or if you feel weak, have a fever or your urine is dark.

Statins help millions of people manage their high cholesterol. Most people can take statins without bad side effects and generic, lower-cost versions of the medicines are available. Your healthcare provider will look at your specific situation and decide if a statin is right for you. Grapefruit juice increases levels of atorvastatin, lovastatin, and simvastatin, which may increase the risk of side effects. Be sure to read the warnings that come with your medications.

Demographic factors and statin side effects

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You may think that if your cholesterol goes down, you don’t need a statin anymore. But if the medicine helped lower your cholesterol, you’ll likely need to stay on it long term to keep your cholesterol down. If you make significant changes to your diet or lose a lot of weight, talk to your healthcare professional about whether it might be possible to control your cholesterol without medicine. If you’re taking a statin, be sure to talk to your doctor about whether it’s safe for you to drink alcohol. If you drink only a moderate amount of alcohol and have a healthy liver, it would likely be safe for you to use alcohol and statins together. Taking a statin while following a balanced diet and getting regular exercise is a good way for many people to lower their cholesterol levels.

1. And have your cholesterol checked regularly so you’ll know if the statin is managing it well.
2. While you won’t need to cut grapefruit entirely from your diet, ask your health care expert about how much grapefruit you can have.
3. They may want to decrease your dose or try a different statin.
4. The same study also grouped participants into categories of male and female, finding that the statin lowered LDL cholesterol equally well for both categories.
5. Your provider will also consider your age, sex and race when deciding if you need a statin.

With this condition, cholesterol builds up in your arteries and can lead to angina, heart attack, or stroke. Health care professionals often prescribe statins for people with high cholesterol. Statins help lower total cholesterol and reduce the risk of a heart attack or stroke. Media reporting on statins is often negative, and patient leaflets inform patients that rare but potentially serious muscle problems can occur during statin treatment. Nocebo symptoms are real and bothersome and are a major barrier to treatment. Because of this, many people stop taking statins,[89] which have been proven in numerous large-scale RCTs to reduce heart attacks, stroke, and deaths[90] – as long as people continue to take them.

Myth #3: You could get cataracts from taking statin drugs

The rest of your body’s cholesterol is from what you’re eating. Drugs.com provides accurate and independent information on more than 24,000 prescription drugs, over-the-counter medicines and natural products. This material is provided for educational purposes only and is not intended for medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.

These drugs may also help lower the chance of rejection after an organ transplant, according to a 2013 study. There also has been evidence that statins may help with brain function — in people with dementia, for example. Don’t stop taking your statin medicine before talking to your health care professional. The increase generally occurs when blood sugar levels are already higher than normal. People with prediabetes or diabetes may see their blood sugar levels rise when they start taking a statin.

Your healthcare professional will consider all of your risk factors for heart attacks and strokes before prescribing a statin. Very rarely, statins can cause life-threatening muscle damage called rhabdomyolysis (rab-doe-my-OL-ih-sis). Rhabdomyolysis can cause extreme muscle pain, liver damage, kidney failure and death. Only a few cases of rhabdomyolysis occur per million people taking statins. Rhabdomyolysis can occur when you take statins in combination with certain drugs or if you take a high dose of statins.

What are statin side effects?

Statins do this by blocking your body’s production of an enzyme called HMG-CoA reductase. Blocking this enzyme causes your liver to make less cholesterol, which makes it easier for your body to remove cholesterol that’s already in your blood. If you have read about the potential side effects of statins, you may be more likely to blame your symptoms on the medicine, whether or not they’re truly caused by the drug.

Serious muscle effects have been reported with statins, including rhabdomyolysis – this is the destruction of muscle cells. Initial reports of muscle pain should be investigated by a doctor. Lowering cholesterol isn’t the only benefit of taking a statin. These medicines also have been linked to a lower risk of heart disease and stroke.

You should keep exercising and eating healthy even if you’re taking statins. And have your cholesterol checked regularly so you’ll know if the statin is managing it well. Your healthcare provider will look at your individual situation when deciding if you should take a statin. Having diabetes, high blood pressure or high cholesterol and using tobacco products are all risk factors for getting heart disease.

“Additionally, the benefits of reducing cardiac events in someone who has prediabetes or is diabetic greatly outweigh the mild increase that might occur in their blood sugar,” says Martin. The real risk of developing muscle pain as a result of taking statins is about 5% or less compared with taking a pill that doesn’t contain medicine, called a placebo. However, studies have found that nearly 30% of people stopped taking the pills because of muscle aches even when they were taking a placebo. By inhibiting this enzyme, cholesterol and LDL-cholesterol production is decreased. Statins also increase the number of LDL receptors on liver cells, which enhances the uptake and breakdown of LDL-cholesterol. Most of the effects of statins, including the blocking of the HMG-CoA reductase enzyme) occurs in the liver.